Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c21.s3.16

c21.s3.16

Incription were outsiders, *e.g.*, the Pushyamitras¹ and the Hūṇas. There is not the slightest reference to a fratricidal war. There is no doubt a passage in the Junāgaḍh Inscription of Skanda which says that "the goddess of fortune and splendour (Lakshmī) of her own accord selected (Skanda) as her husband (*svayaṁ varayāṁchakāra*)...having discarded all the other sons of kings (*manujendra-putra*)." But "*Svayameva śriyā gṛihīta*" "accepted by Śrī or Lakshmī of her own accord" is an epithet which is applied by Prabhākara-vardhana, shortly before his death, to Harsha whose devotion to his elder brother is well-known. That Skanda Gupta like Harsha was considered to be the favourite of the Goddess of Luck is well-known. Attention may be invited to the Lakshmī type of his coins² and the epithet *Śrī-parikshipta-vakshāḥ* ("whose breast is embraced by Śrī, *i.e.*, Lakshmī"), occurring in the Junāgaḍh Inscription. The panegyrist of the emperor refers to a *svayambara* in the conventional style.³ A *svayambara* naturally presupposes an assemblage of princes, not necessarily of one particular family, in which all the suitors are discarded excepting one. But there is no inseparable connection between a *svayambara* and a fight, and, even when it is followed by a fight, the combatants are hardly ever princes who are sons of the